Carmen Larson, a school counselor at Sarasota Middle School in Florida, has a lot on her 鈥渢o-do鈥� list. She鈥檚 tasked with supporting 420 8th graders in their quest to reach their academic potential; to understand and manage their emotions; and to plan, or at least think about, their future.
It鈥檚 not an easy ask, given the generally tumultuous and angst-ridden nature of adolescence, the lingering social-emotional fallout from the uncertainty of the last few years that hangs over this group of tweens and teens, and other complicating factors of modern life (think cyberbullying). But Larson, who began her school counseling career in 2002, is good at it鈥攕o much so that the American School Counselor Association, or ASCA, in November named her the nation鈥檚 2025 School Counselor of the Year.
Larson carved out time to share with Education Week what鈥檚 behind her success at tending to the social-emotional needs of her school鈥檚 adolescent students. She pointed to her high visibility within the school building, the motivating force of student 鈥渢urnarounds,鈥� and a dog named Winston.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
You work with adolescents. What challenges come with this particular developmental stage?
Adolescence is hallmarked by discovering: 鈥淲ho am I? How do I fit into this world?鈥� Shifting from a parent-centered life to a self-governing autonomous individual is really all about learning that.
I think that it鈥檚 hard for all kids. Whether there are huge societal pressures or not, just growing up鈥攖urning from child to adolescent鈥攊s a challenge.
As kids make this major life transition, how do you as a school counselor lend support?
We let them know that we care about them. We let them know that we understand that it鈥檚 not easy to grow up and to learn how to navigate these things in life. We support them and help them learn to make decisions on their own.
I don鈥檛 tell students, 鈥淗ere鈥檚 what you need to do,鈥� because all that does is teach them to come to me to solve their problem. I tell them, 鈥淚鈥檒l help you as you navigate this problem and help you think of things that maybe you haven鈥檛 thought of before.鈥�
That really ties back to resiliency skills and social-emotional-learning-related standards that we help kids learn鈥攖he soft skills of life.
Your students need to know and trust you to share their problems. How do you get to know 420 8th graders?
Visibility. I鈥檓 out there all the time, so students see me on a daily basis. We have lunch duty, and I capitalize on that time to go in and sit down with the kids and have conversations with them and say, 鈥淲hat鈥檚 going on and how are things going with you?鈥�
I build really strong relationships with them by doing that. It also helps that we loop with the kids, so I鈥檝e been with these students since they were 6th graders, and next year I鈥檒l go back down to 6th grade.
How do you navigate tough cases, like when students don鈥檛 want to open up to you?
Winston helps. He鈥檚 an employee, but he is also my dog. As a therapy dog, he is part of my program. He鈥檚 really, really good at working with students who are distressed. When students are in crisis, having him here helps alleviate some of those feelings of anxiety and stress and helps bring them back to center much quicker than it would normally take.
He knows students鈥� feelings and their energy, and he just kind of goes right up to them. Students will come into my office and they sit in this chair next to me. And Winston will go right up to them. He usually lays on their feet or leans up against their legs and rests his head in their lap. It鈥檚 just normal and natural for somebody to pet the dog.
Of course, we get students鈥� consent prior to them coming into my office when Winston鈥檚 here.
Has Winston ever been involved in diffusing a particularly challenging situation?
Yes. There was a student who was frequently in trouble and often in the [discipline and behavior] office. Once, when he was in the behavior coach鈥檚 office, he made a statement about self-harm, which is a fast track to my office.
He came in, and Winston was fearful and very wary of him because of how agitated he was, and he went over to his safe spot in a corner. The student picked up on it and said, 鈥淲hat鈥檚 the matter with that dog?鈥� And I said, 鈥淲ell, he鈥檚 picking up that you鈥檙e angry. And so he鈥檚 not quite sure what to make of that. I wonder what would happen if you changed your tone of voice and regulated how you were speaking?鈥�
The student immediately started to talk more calmly and, within about two minutes, Winston went over to him and kind of leaned up against him to offer support. And as he did that, the student relaxed and started crying, and all this trauma and turmoil that had been going on in his life just tumbled out. That鈥檚 the magic of Winston.
Overall, how are your students doing? How is their mental health?
When we came back from the pandemic, it was bad. We saw much higher levels of self harming and mental health crises among kids. We were doing suicide risk assessments every single week.
More recently, we have definitely seen that decline, particularly this year. We previously saw a lot more mental health referrals as well. We鈥檙e also getting better at understanding how to utilize available resources and partner with agencies in our community. I think that, as a whole, kids are happy.
Do you think the challenges that today鈥檚 adolescents face make them more vulnerable to poor mental health than in past generations?
There are things about school and things that adolescents today are navigating socially, like TikTok and Snapchat and this whole digital world, that make it challenging. But in every generation, adolescents have to navigate new challenges. I look at it like this: How do we teach adolescents those skills to navigate it?
Let鈥檚 go back to the caveman days. Fire will burn you. So, how do we learn to work with fire and understand that this can be a huge benefit to us and, if we use it incorrectly, we鈥檙e still gonna get burned? The same coping skills apply to social media and YouTube and gaming platforms.
Then there are the coping strategies that apply to more timeless challenges, like when school is stressful and my parents are coming down on me because I鈥檝e got to get better grades, but I really don鈥檛 want to do my homework right now. Our question as school counselors is: How do you build those skills of resiliency and self management and self-control?
Your job is difficult. What keeps you in it?
I love these kids so much. That鈥檚 my 鈥渨hy.鈥� When I see a kid who has faced all these obstacles and who can鈥檛 seem to get a break and then, through interventions that I鈥檓 able to help facilitate, things start to turn around and that kid is happy and doing well in school鈥攕eeing that journey and that turnaround is why I keep doing what I鈥檓 doing.
